Page 12 - Old School Gamer Magazine Issue #38 FREE Edition

record. It only lasted for two weeks, or maybe just one week, I forget.
What was interesting about it is that I did it all myself. I started at nine
in the morning and ended at nine at night on a Saturday to a Sunday. It was on my 16th birthday. I started when I was 15 and ended when I was 16. That was how I spent my birthday. I remember calling at nine o’clock at night and saying, ‘Hey, Walter. I just set the world record.’ All we did was talk to the manager of the arcade and voila! I had a world record. It’s kind of funny to think that all it took was a simple phone call.
Walter invited me to attend the Life Magazine Meet (see issue #2 of Old School Gamer for more information or google it). I got the opportunity to meet my brethren, to meet these people who were... how do you describe it? They were...we were all crazy, you know? Sometimes, you throw a bunch of people together and everyone thinks you’re crazy. But when we’re together, it all makes sense. You know, there were just a lot of memories. That’s where Billy got his famous Donkey Kong score. We got to know each other, we got to build good relationships. So, I look at Life Magazine as a life- changing moment here.
Suddenly, I went from being on a local level to
a national level. On the local level, I was the best at every game. On the national level, I was the best at maybe one or two games because the level
of competition was just too high. For instance, I was never going to beat Billy
at Pacman, but I picked games like Millipede and Joust, and a few others that I was very competitive at.
THAT’S INCREDIBLE’S PRELIMINARY COMPETITION IN OTTUMWA
I was in 12th place after the first day and I knew it because we only played my two worst games. My brain is like an Excel spreadsheet and with everything, I figured I was going to come in fourth or fifth place. So, I had already figured
out exactly how everybody else
was going to do. I calculated all
the percentages in my brain and I figured out that I was going to come in fourth or fifth, or possibly third or fourth. It was Darren Olson who everyone knew was going to win.
It was obvious that Todd Walker was number one, and then it was between Darren and Eric Jenner.
I just assumed Eric was going to come in second, and then it was a competition between me and Darren for third place. But I did well. I mean, I won the Centipede competition and did well in the other ones, while Eric did poorly, so both Darren and I were above him in the rankings. That’s how I managed to eke into third place. That’s Incredible!
THAT’S INCREDIBLE! COMPETITION ON TV
In Los Angeles, we were there for like four or five days. It was like a big blur. Before I went, my parents
had to go to my high school and say, ‘Hey, Ben’s going to Hollywood.’ There were all these rules like first he had to get permission from our high school’s headmaster, who was a really nice guy, to not penalize me because I was going to miss an entire week of school.
Once I got there... I kind of figured out everyone. I mean, I had figured out that Todd should have won this game. I think if you flipped a coin 10 times, Todd would have won seven or eight of the times. Okay... but again, it was one of those things, just like in a competition. He made
a big mistake in one of the games, Burger Time. His mistake cost him a whole minute. It was not a small mistake; it was a big one.
I was able to keep the lead from there, so that’s how it went. I never really made a big deal out of it. I’ve always understood that it was my 15 minutes of fame.
Ben has friendships from back
in the day with his brethren and makes appearances at some gamer cons once a year or so. You can find out more about what he’s doing now by checking out BenGoldAI.Com
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OLD SCHOOL GAMER MAGAZINE • ISSUE #38